https://www.reddit.com/r/fourthwavewomen/comments/199socn/women_anonymity_and_privacy/
created by AbsentFuck on 18/01/2024 at 15:27 UTC
196 upvotes, 9 top-level comments (showing 9)
There is a situation right now with a band called Sleep Token that got me thinking about this.
For some background, Sleep Token's anonymity is a core part of their artistry and aesthetic. Recently someone doxxed them, revealing the members' identities including their birth certificates. Fans of the group are rightfully upset by this and are rallying behind their desire to remain anonymous. The band has since cleaned out all of their social media pages.
But then it occurred to me that most of the anonymous or faceless celebrities I know of are men. Sleep Token, Banksy, Corpse Husband, Daft Punk, Marshmello, etc. Their privacy is treated as something almost sacred. Attempts to dox them are quickly suppressed by their fans. If their identities are revealed, it's usually done on their terms.
Women don't typically get that same treatment. When women are anonymous it usually isn't a choice made out of artistry or aesthetics. It's something we *must* do in order to be taken seriously. It's the reason some female authors use male sounding or ambiguous pen names. Throughout history "anonymous" was often a woman. Sometimes women are simply erased from the things they create and they get no choice in the matter.
Our privacy is not treated as something sacred. When a woman's intimate photos are leaked she is blamed for taking them, blamed for sharing them with a man she thought she could trust. When the deepfake porn issue with Atrioc happened, many men had zero sympathy for the women Atrioc violated. Many of them used the fact that the women had photos on social media, which meant that disgusting men had the right to create whatever they wanted with those images.
Thinking about all of this made me feel ill. I can only recall one example of a woman who chose anonymity for artistic reasons and managed to stay that way: Elena Ferrante. There are other female creators on YouTube that are faceless, but they don't have the same reach and fame as their male counterparts. When I tried looking up "female faceless celebrities" many of the results I got were of "here's what these female celebrities look like without makeup" or just a list of faceless male celebrities.
Does anyone have examples of women that have chosen to remain anonymous?
Comment by ajisai128 at 19/01/2024 at 06:45 UTC
44 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You're so right, there are way more men like that, and I never stopped to consider it until now.
I can only think of local examples, I'm in Japan. A lot of female manga authors manage to remain anonymous. The desired level of anonymity varies from person to person ofc. This could mean adopting a male name, or using a fake identity but still revealing herself to be female, or wearing masks at ALL in-person events and photo ops so as to not show her face (look up paru itagaki, lol). People respect it, but I also think this sort of privacy here is taken a lot more seriously, both from a societal and legal perspective.
Comment by spamcentral at 19/01/2024 at 17:32 UTC
19 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Honestly no... wtf? And everytime im anonymous, people assume im a man. (They clearly dont see my sub list lmao)
Edit: actually cant think of any women that stayed anonymous when they wanted to
Comment by thesavagekitti at 20/01/2024 at 02:50 UTC
16 upvotes, 1 direct replies
There was an Italian author in the past few years, who I think very much wanted to remain anonymous. Reasonably well known in Italy; some guy went to a lot of trouble to track down her identify. I think she was reconsidering if she wanted to carry on writing as a result. I can't remember her name though.
Comment by [deleted] at 19/01/2024 at 00:03 UTC
24 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by victoriaisme2 at 19/01/2024 at 16:59 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I hope more and more women snap out of participating and supporting patriarchy. That's the only way this will change.
Comment by printerj0 at 19/01/2024 at 17:29 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There’s the Guerilla Girls!
Comment by IwantyoualltoBEDAVE at 18/01/2024 at 19:44 UTC
15 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Hold up. Banksy is a woman
However I completely agree with you that women aren’t considered to have a right to privacy like men are
Comment by youAhUah at 18/01/2024 at 23:13 UTC
13 upvotes, 2 direct replies
the only thing I came to mind is Pussy Riot, which if the name doesn’t give it away - is a pseudo “feminist” group from Russia that was exposed as a giant psyOp.
Comment by thisalgosucks at 31/01/2024 at 04:02 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Angelyne's story comes to mind, in comparison